[2012 State of the Industry Report] Opt for Optimism

The good news in this year’s PCT “State of the Industry Report” is that many companies in the pest management industry have been doing well. The better news is that there is optimism about the coming year. By the way, in this year’s “State of the Industry Report,” you’ll read that the recession officially ended in June 2009, which might come as a surprise to you — it certainly will if you are the parent of a recent college graduate who can’t find a good job, or a job at all. But there certainly are predictions of better things to come. Dow AgroSciences managers recently heard a presentation from a business consultant who said our economy operates on 10-year cycles. This consultant said we have now passed the bottom of the current cycle, so things should be on the upswing.

“Should be on the upswing” is good news, but it is not a predictor of how things will go for your business in 2013. The survey results on these pages reflect national trends, and things can differ in a local area. Additionally, respondents took the PCT survey this summer and things can change in just a few months — just think politics, housing starts, the global economy and, in our industry, even the weather. I do not intend to be a downer here, but I’ve just never been a fan of predicting how my business will do next year based on economic predictions or surveys. Sure, it’s tougher to make business headway in a down economy, but the goal is success whether in good or not-so-good times. Growth is the goal, and you can never let up.

For that reason, I enjoy many of the company testimonials in state of the industry surveys. Some of these companies have been growing despite the slow economic big picture. These innovative companies just decided to do something different — something better than they had been doing before. I know we had to do that with the Sentricon® Termite Colony Elimination System. It has been doing great, is the leading bait product by far and is a top brand in the termite category. But we could not sit on our laurels. So, we invested to develop Always Active™ technology. We have great competition, which makes raising the bar crucial to our continuing success.

The bottom line on PCT’s 2012 “State of the Industry Report” is that things look good, but we all need to strive to get even better. From my perspective, more and more companies in our industry are doing just that. As an industry, we are more professional than ever. We deliver better service to the consumers who we ultimately serve than ever before. We at Dow AgroSciences are pleased to be sponsor of this year’s “State of the Industry Report.” It’s good information. And we are pleased to play a leading role in this great industry.

Dave Morris
Commercial Director
Dow AgroSciences Urban Pest Management Business

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